Here’s a way to upcycle those Styrofoam trays that come home from the produce department now and then (I’m looking at you, mini cucumbers) and use them in a holiday craft. Today, Veronika and I turned them into ornaments!

Once the tray had been washed and dried, we pulled out a few Christmas cookie cutters and traced around them, then cut out. Veronika loved talking about all the shapes.

Now use the tip of a white crayon to make imprinted designs in the Styrofoam. I showed Veronika an example of lines and dots on a stocking shape. Since it was hard for her to press down the crayon hard enough or with precision, I took directions from her instead. She asked for circles on the candy cane and triangles on the star!

Next, we painted the shapes with acrylic paint. She was so excited when she noticed that the paint had made lines on her paintbrush, at one point.

Finally, it was time to squirt on glitter glue. Aim to use a corresponding color of glitter for each color of paint you’ve used (although with a toddler, be prepared for some mixing and matching). Ideally, once you brush the glitter glue across the surface of the shapes with a paintbrush, it will sink into the etched lines you made with the white crayon.

However, since I was doing this project with a toddler, ours didn’t come out quite that neatly. But Veronika loved simply squirting big globs of glitter glue, which was just fine.

Punch a hole in the top once dry, thread with string, and hang from the tree!